The generalized action potential of protest movements: The new class,social trends,and political exclusion explanations

Three explanations have been advanced to account for the generalized action potential of contemporary protest movements: the rise of the new class, a set of general social trends that cumulatively lead to liberalized social values and loosened social restraints against protest, and the mobilization of excluded groups. Analyzing three dimensions of generalized action potential—protest potential, political action repertoires, and protest movement support—we find support for all three explanations. Educated salaried professionals, especially sociocultural and public sector professionals, display greater protest potential, especially for civil disobedience, and are supportive of emerging “middle class” movements. A set of general social trends centering on increased education, life-cycle and generational change, secularism, and increased women's autonomy also create greater action potential. Reflecting mobilization against political exclusion, African Americans display a consistently strong generalized action potential. These protests reflect the rise of new political repertoires, particularly “protest activism,” which combines protest with high levels of conventional participation and is centered among the more educated.     

Truth,misinterpretation, or left-wing McCarthyism?

It is “left-wing McCarthyism” to suggest that there was anything morally questionable or idiosyncratic about Talcott Parsons's 1948 effort to recruit displaced Soviet citizens for the Harvard Russian Research Center. There is no definite evidence that any of the people Parsons interviewed were “war criminals” by Nuremberg standards. The suggestion that Parsons aided possible Nazi collaborators stems from an ideologically motivated unwillingness to recognize the totalitarian and expansionist nature of the Soviet Union under Stalin which is unworthy of serious consideration.     

Maternal Health in Post-Soviet Georgia

ABSTRACT

During the post-Soviet economic and political transformation, underprivileged social groups frequently experienced economic instability, financial insecurity, and lack of political representation. During the transition from communism to democracy Georgian women with low social status experienced not only economic hardship but also deterioration of health. Among the negative outcomes of post-Soviet transition were unsafe motherhood, increased cigarette and alcohol consumption, unsafe sex, increased gender violence, and a decline of maternal health. This article analyzes maternal health conditions of Georgian women after the collapse of the Soviet Union.     

Europe and the Euro: Do not Indulge in Misinterpreting Strength as Weakness

The change was not only promised during Obama’s electoral campaign but urgently invoked by all the major international actors in view of the financial and economic crises: the world foreign policy has suddenly entered a new age not being yet prepared to govern globalization and its wide interdependence conditionality. Even Russia has changed tune now and President Medvedev announced vigorously a new strategy, a new policy, and a new drive for Russia. Until a few years ago, the theories of International Relations were simply an American intellectual and governance exit of the growing role of the US in the world, a kind of field of competence for the greatest power in the global economic, political, strategic and innovative sectors. The British School was an island of the core American thinking and the rest of the world mostly absent. FSU has not expressed a relevant contribution to the various schools of thinking related to the IR theories and even the Marxist political scientists did not dedicate specifically to this main research area because convinced that first it was not a real “science” but a derivative outcome from Philosophy or Political Science; secondly, for the reason of the monopoly of the power in the hands of an autocratic regime where these issues were not left to the researchers and experts but only to the institutional and military leadership. Today Russia—after having caressed and found opportunistically convenient to resume the realism doctrines of the past US almost decennial Presidency, with modest attempts to assume the great changes in international affairs intervened— has the chance to take the last train for a competitive power role, “de facto” under the unavoidable strict rules of engagement of the global governance. In the 2020–2030 the world would be completely reshape by the present metamorphosis.     

COMPARING CITIZEN AND ELITE BELIEF SYSTEMS IN POST-SOVIET RUSSIA AND UKRAINE

No previous research has systematically compared the policypreferences and attitudinal constraint of elites and ordinarycitizens in societies undergoing a fundamental change in theform of the government and the economic system. This articleutilizes directly comparable survey questions asked of a representativesample of citizens and their parliamentary representatives intwo post-Soviet countries, Russia and Ukraine, to determinethe degree of similarity that existed in the attitudinal preferencesand ideological consistency of these two sets of political actors6 months after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The level ofattitude consistency and ideological thinking among ordinarycitizens was found to be unexpectedly high, thereby reflectingthe degree of politicization occurring during the period immediatelypreceding the Soviet disintegration. Relative to other studiesof elites, however, the attitude constraint among the eliteswas unexpectedly low. This unexpected finding is explained bythe absence of various institutions and arrangements that promoteconsistent attitudes among elites in western democracies, suchas functioning political parties, lobby groups, and an investigatorymedia.     

In the Triangle of Civil Society,Politics, and Economy: Positioning Magazines of Nonprofit Organizations

Nonprofit organizations, though rooted in civil society and primarily committed to value rationality, must work legitimately to influence political and economic systems. To a certain degree, therefore, they must adapt to the purposive logic of power and money. This study analyzes the way in which nonprofit organizational communications respond to such tensions, using a nationwide survey of editors-in-chief responsible for magazines issued by nonprofit organizations in Switzerland as the empirical basis. These magazines often function as steering tools targeted toward members, following the logic of power and there is less danger of them being “colonized” by economic logic. The results indicate that large organizations that rely on paid staff tend to cut their ties with civil society and the “lifeworlds” of their members.     

Why Territorial Disintegration Has Not Occurred in Russia: Applying State Breakdown Theories to Explain Stability

Much has been written to explain the collapse of the former Soviet Union. Little attention, however, has been paid to understanding why post-1991 Russia has maintained stability despite continued economic and political turmoil throughout the 1990s. This paper attempts to answer this question by applying an integrated model of territorial disintegration to examine the political, economic, demographic, and geopolitical changes in the pre-1991 Soviet Union and post-1991 Russia. The integrated model is constructed by synthesizing Goldstone's demographic-structural model, Skocpol's and Collins' geopolitical model, and a modified version of Collins' argument of the destabilizing potential brought about by rapid market development as three alternative routes to territorial disintegration. It is found that improvement in Russia's geopolitical condition after 1991 is largely responsible for the decline in disintegrative potential. Slower population growth also rendered the demographic route less disintegrative during the 1990s. More effective taxation and the availability of foreign loans enabled the Russian state to handle its financial crises, thereby curbing the development of destabilizing forces through the dynamics proposed by Collins.     

The political economy of Cuban dependence on the Soviet Union

Conclusion The history of Cuban-Soviet relations is one of transition from independence to integration within a Soviet dominated sphere of influence. In the early 1970s the Soviet Union emerged as the dominant political force in Cuba. By 1973 the Cuban economy had been securely subordinated to the Soviet economy. Also, in the domain of ideology Cuba had come to support the Soviet line on revolutionary strategy and socialist diplomacy, and had abandoned the Cuban road.Important contradictions continued to disrupt the unity between Cuba and the USSR at a political level until 1972. With the consolidation of a strong PSP faction within the PCC and state administration, together with Soviet trained technocrats, the Soviet ruling circles had gained influence over the Cuban State. Contradictions persisted with Castro's faction which, together with the group around his brother Raul, controlled the armed forces.Cuba's relations with the Soviet Union evolved in the direction of asymmetric interdependence, of dependence, for the following reasons: 1) the ratio of foreign to domestic economic transactions was high; 2) foreign economic transactions were distributed among a small group of countries, the Soviet bloc, which were under the political and economic hegemony of the USSR; 3) the ratio of Soviet to Cuban domestic sources for capital, technology, and factories was high; 4) foreign trade in terms of markets and sources for imports were highly concentrated in the direction of the USSR, although it has become more diversified since 1973; 5) there were limited options for Cuba to diversify so as to replace the USSR with other patrons or to dispense with the particular eonomic, military, and political resources controlled by the Soviet Union; 6) the economy of Cuba became reliant on the fluctuations of demand in the Soviet bloc and not on the growth of domestic demand, because of the centrality of sugar monoproduction; 7) within the ruling party, government administration, and management of enterprises a stratum allied with and responsive to the Soviet ruling circles was formed; 8) with the coordination of economic planning the development of the Cuban economy was very closely conditioned by and complementary to that of the Soviet Union; and 9) there developed great deficits in the balance of payments because of the rigidities in exports, the terms of trade, and massive imports from the USSR.Dependence on the USSR was also related to the smallness and isolation of Cuba and her proximity to a hostile superpower, the US. As well, China's inability to compete with the USSR in providing economic and military inputs reduced Cuba's capacity to replace the Soviet Union. The US economic embargo also presented Havana with limited options. Cuba was trapped in a situation of bipolar balance in which one superpower was implacably hostile and the other exercised an increasingly inevitable magnetic attraction.Cuba could not replace or dispense with the Soviet Union. Unlike the US, the Soviet Union's influence was not based on the direct ownership of Cuba's productive resources, on equity interest in enterprises. This was an important reason for Cuba's greater relative autonomy from the USSR than from the US. On many occasions Havana and Moscow coalesced, at times differences arose. The USSR enjoyed a varying capacity to enforce policy changes on the Cuban government. If one general evaluation of the relationship could be made it would be this: in the trade-offs between Havana and Moscow, the Cubans were able to attain their objectives on many occasions by utilizing Soviet aid; the price they paid was to compromise their independence and damage the possibility of a transition to a communist mode of production.Growing dependence on the USSR led Cuba to adopt a bureaucratic and authoritarian political and economic structure. Divisions between mental and manual labor, between party and masses were widened. Commandism triumphed over the mass-line. Collectivism is confined to formal public ownership of property. In marxism, a basic distinction is made between two modes of production: the capitalist and the communist. Socialism refers to the period of transition from the former to the latter. Although the Cuban leadership claims to be pursuing the goal of communism, the road they have taken will not lead them there, but to the type of repressive society we find in the USSR. Cuban economic dependence has enabled the USSR to insert its own particular form of socialism in Cuba.     

Global Civil Society and the Question of Global Citizenship

For many recent commentators, the association of citizenship with the nation-state is under siege, as transnational and even global forms of citizenship begin to emerge. The nascent phenomenon of global citizenship in particular is characterized by three components: the global discourse on human rights; a global account of citizenly responsibilities; and finally “global civil society.” This last component is supposed to give a new global citizenship its “political” character, and for many represents the most likely vehicle for the emergence of a global, democratic citizen politics. This paper critically examines this view, asking whether a global form of citizenship is indeed emerging, and if so whether “global civil society” is well-equipped to stand in as its political dimension. The paper examines two opposed narratives on the potential of global civil society to form a political arm of global citizenship, before returning by way of conclusion to the vexed notion of global citizenship itself.This paper draws from the final chapter of Rethinking Equality: the Challenge of Equal Citizenship, Manchester University Press, Manchester, 2006.     

Quebec Sociology: A Discipline and its Object

Quebec sociology and Quebec society are categorically distinct from other sociologies and countries. Both are “communities,” both have French-speaking majorities, and both exist in Anglo-Saxon environments. As well, Quebec sociology has always been and continues to be obsessed by the national question. Interpretations proposed by sociologists—predominantly French-speaking—of and about the Quebec Question have never been independent of the struggles in which they have taken place. In fact, sociological readings of nationalism in Quebec appear to be a direct consequence of their social position and relationship with political power. Through the prism of sociology, the French-speaking collectivity in Canada has been, successively and simultaneously, characterized through categories of race, ethnic group, society, and nation. 2 This article presents five ways in which sociologists have represented Quebec society. First, the Pioneers: Léon Gérin and Marius Barbeau, or the Quebec “Difference” as a handicap. Second, the characterization of Quebec through race, territory, and soul. Third provides the external perspectives of Miner and Hughes. Fourth will examine the Laval (Quebec) School. Finally, this article will examine Quebec Society as either an ethnic or civic nation. Each theme has been set chronologically in specific periods of Quebec sociology: the Pioneers (Part 1 and 2, before 1940); the institutionalization of academic sociology (Part 3 and 4, 1940-1969); and the “nationalization” and professionalization of sociology (Part 5, 1970 to the present).     

Russian refugees. A tragedy or the costs of imperial consciousness?

The author attempts to estimate migration of Russians from other republics of the former Soviet Union back to Russia, and factors causing this migration. The encouragement by many local authorities of anti-Russian feeling for political purposes is identified as a major cause of such re-migration. This is a translation of the Russian article in Sotsiologicheskie Issledovaniia (Moscow, Russia), No. 9, 1992, pp. 59-64.     

Corruption,Social Welfare,Culture and Religion in European Union 27

Corruption is a complex and generalized phenomenon all over the world, with economical, cultural, social, psychological, political, administrative and religious dimensions. Defining and studying the phenomenon go through the most different thinking filters known in the specialist literature: economic, social-cultural, political, administrative and religious. The aim of this article is to quantify and analyze, in European Union 27 (EU27), the relationship between corruption and economic, cultural and religious determinant factors, through a regressive “pool data” model, for the period 1996–2008. The conclusion is that, in the EU27 case, social welfare, power distance, individualism, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance and religious influence significantly influence corruption. Moreover, religion attenuates uncertainty avoidance, more exactly situations such as uncertainty, the unknown, ambiguity or unexpected circumstances.     

The refusenik community in Moscow: social networks and models of identification

Since the late nineteenth century the history of Russian Jewry has been one of contradictory trends: on the one hand, large-scale migration and resettlement (both abroad and in the major industrial and cultural centres of Russia/the USSR/the former Soviet Union [FSU]); and, on the other hand, attempts to (re-)establish a full Jewish life and adapt it to changing conditions. The refuseniks – a small but notable group of Soviet Jewish activists who were prevented by the Soviet authorities from leaving the country for Israel – melded both trends. Despite extensive literature on this subject, we are still lacking satisfactory answers to a few important questions, dealing with the factors in the creation of the Zionist refusenik community, its organisational frameworks, and the social and political legacy of the refuseniks for Jewish communities of the post-Soviet space and the “new Russian Jewish diaspora.” This article addresses refusenik associations in Moscow and in some other places as a “community in the making,” which between the early 1970s and mid 1980s, a period of Jewish national awakening in the USSR, experienced a process of gradual transformation from an amorphous semi-structured entity to a more institutionalised structure.     

The Macroeconomic Determinants of Remittance Flows from Russia to Tajikistan

Within the two decades of transition to market economy interdependence of the former Soviet Union countries is continuing. Labour migration between Russia and the former Soviet Union republics is one of the examples of this relationship. This paper defines the macroeconomic determinants of remittance flows from Russia to Tajikistan—the world’s top remittance-receiving country as a share of GDP. The paper demonstrates that the changes in the income available for the migrants and the possibility of migrants involvement in the labour market of the host country have a significant impact on their money transfers. Furthermore, remittance inflows are determined by the overall economic environment in the host and home countries as well as the global economy’s condition.     

Black Gold and Blue Gold: The Importance of Energy in the New Power Policy of the Russian Federation

After having been forced to face a decade of economic and political difficulties, the Russian Federation is regaining a position of prestige on the international stage thanks to an astute utilization of its huge reserves of oil and natural gas. With the coming to power of Vladimir Putin—and in particular from 2004—the State has changed its policy in the energy field, aiming to come back to exert a strict control over the main companies and assets. One of the most significant consequences of this change has been the outbreak of disputes with Ukraine and Belarus about the selling price of gas, which caused fears among the entire Europe about the reliability of Russia as a supplier of that resource. Moreover, the quarrels forced many Western analysts to condemn the way Moscow is acting to try and become an “energy superpower”.

Civil Society on Global Governance: Facing Up to Divergent Analysis, Strategy, and Tactics

This paper considers three different conceptualizations – three politico-ideological perspectives within civil society – on global-scale economics and geopolitics. The standpoints can be termed “Global justice movements,” “Third World nationalism,” and the “Post-Washington Consensus.” These three perspectives stand in contrast to the fusion of neoliberal economics and neoconservative politics that dominates the contemporary world. The three approaches sometimes converge, but more often than not they are in conflict; as are the civil society institutions that cohere to the three different political ideologies. From the three different analyses flow different strategies, concrete campaigning tactics, and varying choices of allies. The World Social Forum provides hints of a potentially unifying approach within the global justice movements based upon the practical themes of “decommodification” and “deglobalization” (of capital). It is, however, only by facing up to the ideological divergences that the global justice movement can enhance its presence.

The national historical archive of Belarus 1

This essay considers a new, troubling development in the former Soviet Union. It calls for historians to be attentive and thereby perhaps to forestall or minimise potential damage to Jews and Jewish interests in the former Soviet Union which might result from the use and misuse of history. The essay assesses recent statements from a former minister in Russia regarding Jewish agricultural settlement in Crimea during the interwar period. These statements echo monstrous antisemitic fabrications from the High Stalinist years and suggest that Jews in the former Soviet Union may still be vulnerable to the effects of old Soviet‐style habits of historical manipulation.     

The shtetl in the museum: representing Jews in the eras of Stalin and Putin

This article considers the representation of the shtetl in two museum narratives devoted to Jews in Soviet and post-Soviet Russia. The first, the state-funded 1939 exhibit “The Jews in Tsarist Russia and the USSR” was organized by the Jewish Section of the State Museum of Ethnography in Leningrad and remained on display to the Soviet public until the Nazi invasion in June 1941. The second is the privately funded Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center in Moscow, which opened in 2012. Though conceived under radically different ideological and political circumstances, each exhibition conveys a significant message about the place of Jews in Soviet and post-Soviet society, respectively, and each positions the shtetl as a formative arena for Jewish civic identity vis-à-vis the Russian homeland. Across the chasm of over seventy years, these two museum projects raise strikingly similar questions about how and why cultural institutions are mobilized to define the relationship of Ashkenazi Jews and the state. In both cases, the shtetl plays a significant role in narrating this unequal relationship.     

The warlord as arbitrageur

This article seeks to generate a more precise understanding of the emergence and perpetuation of warlords. First, it offers a simple, intuitive, and empirically grounded conceptual definition of warlordism. Second, it argues that the primary factor contributing to the success of warlords is the ability to take advantage of price differentials for political, economic, and cultural goods across terrains—in a word, to arbitrage. Third, it illustrates this model with a case study of Khun Sa (1934–2007), the self-proclaimed Shan freedom-fighter and “king” of Burma’s heroin trade. Finally, it suggests that the international community rethink its commitment to the norm of sovereignty in order to combat the proliferation of such non-state violence-wielders.     

Debating,obfuscating and disciplining the Holocaust: post-Soviet historical discourses on the OUN–UPA and other nationalist movements

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union the archives of the former republics and satellite states of this multiethnic empire were opened. This allowed historians to investigate the history of nationalist and radical right organisations and armies that, during the Second World War, had been involved in the Holocaust and other atrocities. Among them was the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists. For a long time the history of these movements was unknown or distorted by Soviet propaganda and propagandist publications written during the Cold War by veterans of these movements living in the West and cooperating with Western intelligence services. The dissolution of the Soviet Union was simultaneously accompanied by the “rebirth” of nationalism that was not free from antisemitism and racism, and which triggered different types of nationalist distortions of history and obfuscations of the Holocaust. Post-Soviet historical discourses were shaped not only by journalists or political activists, but also by radical right historians. These discourses impacted as well on historians who in general were critical of the post-Soviet rehabilitation of nationalism, war criminality or East Central European fascism. Concentrating on Ukrainian and Polish history, this article explores how the radical right historical discourses appeared in the post-Soviet space, what types of historians were involved in them and what kinds of distortions and obfuscations have predominated.